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I had an immense amount of fun tonight. Even though the mission was long, it didn't feel long at any point. Thanks to people involved in making the mission (except me, I'm modest), Bodge for getting it all together, Washington for commanding and everyone else for propelling bits of metal towards people at high velocities.
And special thanks for StrangLove for Alpha FTLing, and for all the new people who turned up. Hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you again!

I had a lot of fun molesting unknown men last night. Thanks to everyone who designed it and to Stranglove for leading in a relaxed manner.

My only problem was that the wounded had no spazing animation, they would just lay there on their backs and yell out 'oh no!' etc, so it was really hard to spot them in the tall grass (even with the map marker).

[AAR] Folk [Sun] 13 May 2012

Comrades, you know a session has gone well when the final mission starts long into the third hour, and the playercount is still close to 20. We peaked at close to 30 players this evening, allowing us to field near-full platoons for three large-scale missions. I'm very grateful to everyone who came along tonight. Special mention for the new players - I hope you enjoyed your first Folk session, and will join us again next Sunday. Also, please remember the excellent ARPS Tactical Tuesday, where you'll get to play with many of the same comrades, and experience the joys of respawn.

Again, huge thank you to everyone who came along tonight. We even managed to look competent. Apart from the one where we all got wounded again and again and again. I'm looking at you, comrade admiral Nullkigan, you sadist.

As part of the SF team we were supposed to blow up a few tanks which worked like a charm. Unfortunately when we were about to make our way back to the frontlines, we met a BMP and a T-34 that seemed a bit angry about us blowing up their friends. I lay between rocks in the riverbed as I heard them take out my squadmates one by one and when it was only me left I tried to dash towards the safety of a few buildings ahead. Alas, the first shell sent me to the ground and when I tried to get up again the second shell did the rest.

Watching the rest of the forces getting decimated but yet achieving victory was fun though and we had a good laugh in the spectator's channel about Null's untimely demise.

Lead Stocks
The horror, the horror.
I was commanding and got everyone killed. It was a total clusterfuck and at the end all fireteams where engaged in direct combat with the enemy with no chance of any maneuvering whatsoever. When we tried to disengage we just made it easier for the enemy to finish us off.

Feruzablues

Leading Delta Squad we accompanied the Stryker up until Feruz Abad. While the Stryker did most of the work we had a close call when our rear was engaged halfway to town. I lost astutecat seconds before we hit the first building in Feruz proper from an unknown gunman who I hope was brought to justice by Charlie Squad. As we proceeded through town a sudden explosion shook us awake and we realized that LADA had been taken out by a deviously played SPG.

Still, we managed to stay alive up until the mine which we cleared of hostiles and celebrated our victory by wasting expensive military equipment.

RE:Feruzablues

I'm thinking of replacing the Stryker with something more squishy as for example one or two shielded M2 HMMWs. The alternative would be to add a few more threats like SPG technicals.

Huzzah
HAT 1
With Toppo as the greatest missile carrier ever we followed Alpha along the ridge-line proceeding south towards the target. We must have taken down about 4 tanks or so until we moved forwards, a brief skirmish with a patrol was our only close combat until we began to reach the end of the end of the ridge. We came under automatic fire from very close forcing a slight retreat before we pushed again, I took down a couple before catching a round somewhere important. Again a very good job done by toppo with target id'ing an support.

Lead Stocks
Bravo lead
This quickly turned south with several contacts moving in the tree line directly ahead of us and to our right flank. The entire force became a mass of writhing bodies in record time.

Freuzablues
Alpha Lead
Alpha was to hold on a hillside south of Feruz to provide covering fire and spot targets, spot targets we did with the assistance of the highly useful MMG team (Fer and Toppo) before we came under heavy fire from multiple contacts. The nature of our armament forced us to move closer to engage while MMG covered and provided contact reports from above us. As we moved a couple of us got winged by close infantry and HMG fire from across the town. Some medic-ing from Null got us back together and we proceeded towards the military compound in town. I hostile brdm was giving us issues until weight of fire and the blast from a nearby rocket from f1yer disabled it allowing us to move in. Due to an incident involving an argument with gravity command passed to me at this point, swiftly followed by the explosion of the brdm. The surviving fireteams formed up at the town exit and Charlie and the rest of Alpha (with static dshkm) made their way up the hillside to provide an alternate angle of assault on the mine. The rest of the platoon was suddenly engaged from the rear and alpha and charlie (and medic) were left as the only assault team. Charlie received heavy casualties but the compound was secured and the swift arrival of Delta in support helped clear out the remaining enemy and complete the mission.

Mail Man
Bravo engie (i think)
A swift insertion thanks to comrade tigershark put us down and we were swiftly engaged by ground forces. We eliminated the resistance and secured the Villa del draakon south of the C-130 wreck. With sporadic infantry contacts we secured the data download with little issue and before we knew it we were extracting back to base, I made sure the luxury and decadence of the villa would not be spoiled by hostile occupation and that was a wrap.

In all a very good session, there were a few things that irritated me/made me a bit sad. Both as a command element and a ARPS Admin/Folk Host

- Please remember that Arma with FOLK/ARPS works by obeying orders and a chain of command, it requires a flow of information in both directions and commanding and playing is made much harder if this doesn't happen. This means things like calling targets and relaying them (concisely) to the powers that be and those that need to know. Also checking with command before you deviate from given orders as it may well influence other squads.

- Be careful on comms, there was a lot of noise and chatter that made life quite difficult. If you are on CC then keep it SHORT, people have fireteams and ingame sounds they need to be listening for. Also try to remain calm when relaying info, shouting/panicked messages are either hard to understand or painful to listen to.

- Keep banter to chat, it allows us to get in mission faster. A little banter is not a bad thing but try to keep the map screen and slotting screen quiet so that CO and Host can sort things out. A quick heads up: On the slotting screen the CO is not in charge of slotting it is the host so check in with them if you would like something. Giving people your personal opinion on matters when the CO is making a plan should only happen when the CO asks for it (this is generally only for leaders as well, though the host/admin/mission maker might have something important to add)

This is not a OMG STATE OF THE ARPS! It is however not up for debate either, this is just a few things that need to be taken note of to make life smoother for all.

We are good at being organised - but as an Admin/Host I feel that by flagging these issues early we will not slide into bad habits. It's not just a personal preference, but a personal experience and a necessity: we have, in the past, lost valuable players who have become frustrated at 'chaos'. We don't need to be mil-sim, just organised.